Card shuffling aid



Jan. 29, 1952 P. A. NAPlEClNSK! CARD SHUFFLING AID Filed Feb. 5, 1950 1 57-52 A A HP/EcJ/vfld M, m PM (,Tttornegs Patented Jan. 29, 1 952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,583,871 CARD SHUFFLING AID Peter A. Napiecinski, Milwaukee, Wis. Application February 3, 1950, Serial No. 142,205

7 Claims.

This invention relates to a card shufiling aid.

It is the object of the invention to provide a rack into which cards may be shuflled in the conventional manner, whereupon the rack will be used to reassemble the deck.

More specifically, it is desired to provide a rack mechanism comprising laterally and upwardly open box elements having closed ends beyond which the respective elements are pivoted to each other, the pivot being offset from such ends and the respective box elements having inclined bottoms slanting toward their closed ends and beveled toward each other to faciiltate their use for the intended purpose.

It is important to the accomplishment of the purposes of this invention that the respective rack elements beboth open and pivotally movable, since, if either of these features is omitted, they will not function as desired.

In the drawings:

Projecting rearwardly from the respective rear walls 9 and II] at intersecting oblique angles are the arms 2| and 22 which are pivoted together by a pintle 23 desirably spaced materially to the rear of the rear walls 9 and In of the respective trays 5 and 6. To receive the pintle, the arm 2| may be provided with an ear at 25 constituting an extension of its top surface while the arm 22 has anear at 26 constituting an extension of its lower surface. The pintle 23 connects the lapping ears.

In using the device, the angularly open trays are placed before the operator in the position shown in Fig. 2 and the deck to be shuffied is divided in the usual manner into two packs which are thereupon shufiled together in the open Fig. 1 is a view in perspective showing a device embodying my invention as it appears when in open position to have a deck of cards shuflled therein.

Fig. 2 is a view on a reduced scale in plan showing the device as it appears when two packs of cards have been shullled together into the rack.

Fig. 3 is a plan view showing the two parts of the rack moved into parallelism to interleave the cards which have been shuflled into them.

Fig. 4 is a view in inner side elevation'of the lefthand rack element, the connecting hinge of the righthand element being shown in section.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary detail view of a modified tray embodiment in end elevation as it appears in use.

The right and lefthand rack elements 5 and 6 comprise side walls I and 8, respectively, and end walls 9 and II), respectively, and bottoms II and I2, respectively. The side and end walls may be joined at right angles and the bottoms, in each instance, desirably inclined toward the rear or end wall of the rack, being flush with the bottom of the end wall at the rear of the rack but spaced well above the bottom of the side wall at the open front of the rack. The side wall may, in each instance, be higher at the front than the rear to provide a uniform depth above the bottom.

The opposed inner margins of the end walls and bottoms may be beveled as indicated at I 3, l4, l5 and 16 in Fig. 1. In addition, the bottoms of the respective trays are desirably notched as indicated at H and I8, the bottoms being marginally beveled at l9 notches.

and 20 beside the respective I rack, one of the packs 2'! being shuflled into the tray 5 and the other pack 28 being shuffled into the tray 6.

The angular position of the two trays will be such that at the conclusion of the shufiling operation only the corner portions of the cards of the respective packs will lap as shown at 29 in Fig. 2. However, it will be observed that the opposing side walls 1 and 8 of the laterally open trays have confined the individual cards to prevent them from escaping laterally, thus requiring all of them to enter into the interleaved relationship illustrated. The cards also tend to be held by the inclination of the bottoms of the respective trays in their proper position in abutment with the respective end walls 9 and I 0. When the deck which is being shufiled is: a double deck, the cards are particularly apt to escape from the desired interleaved relationship but they are accurately and properly confined in such relationship when shuflled into the hingedly con nected trays illustrated.

At the conclusion of the Shufiling operation shown in Fig. 2, the two trays are moved pivotally toward each other as shown in Fig. 3, thus bringing the beveled margins l5 and I6 of the two trays into proximity. It is not necessary that they be brought into actual contact, since it is sufiicient that the lap of the cards of the respective packs, which was originally limited to the small areas shown at 29 in Fig. 2, is now continuous throughout the lengths of the cards and to a substantial proportion of their widths as indicated at 30 in Fig. 3.

The operator may now readily lift the lapping cards from the trays by putting his thumb or finger beneath the cards in the space provided by the proximate notches I1 and I8 in the bottom walls. The inclination of the bottom walls so raises the ends of the cards nearest to the opera- Fig. 2 position of the trays.

assured by the oblique disposition of the hingedly In this connection, it is important that the closed ends of the trays, as well as the open ends thereof, have movement toward each other to increase the overlap of the cards from that minimum overlap which is required of the cards inthe Such approach is connected arms 2i and 22, which locates the pivot point well outwardly of the closed ends of the ays r p The mode of using the modified embodiment shown in Fig.5 the same as in the device already described. This view is included merely to indicate that, if desired, the notch may-be omitted from the open ends of the trays and the side wall 80 may 'be formed with an overhang to a-ssist an unskilled person in forming the card pack 28 in a manner to facilitate the shufiiing thereof. As will be "observed, the overhanging wall 80 forces the successivecards of the pack into successively inwardly offset positions. In all other respects, the construction may be the same.

Iclaim: v a v i 1. A card shufliing aid comprising a pair of trays having arms in hinged connection, each tray having a corresponding closed end from which its respective arm extends, the other end and proximate sides of the respective trays being open, the respective trayshaving side walls at their outer sides and being wholly open at their. tops to per- -mit two packs of .card sto be shuiiled together into the respective trays while the trays are angularly related, thetrays being movable oh'the hinge to diverge therefrom toward the'said other ends of the trays and being movable into "substantial parallelism to increase the interleaving of the cards of such packs when the shuffling has been completed. 1

2. The device of claim 1 in which the hingedly connected arms extend obliquely from the ends of the respective trays toward their hinged connection, whereby the point of hinged connection is spaced outwardly from the closed ends of the trays.

3. The device of claim 1 in which the bottom of eachtrayis elevated at the open end of the tray and inclined downwardly toward the closed end thereof. 7

4. The device of claim 3 in which the proxie inate corners of the tray bottoms at the open ends of the tray are notched to facilitate manipulation of cards after the trays have been'hingedly moved into parallelism.

5. A device of the character described comprising right and lefthand trays, each comprising a fully exposed'bottom downwardly inclined rearwardly and having an inner side margin beveled,

each tray being provided with a side wall along 'the'out'er margin of its bottom and with sin-end wall at the rear end of its bottom, and arms connected with the respective trays and extending rearwardly in oblique directions upon intersecting paths, said arms having lapping ear portions, and a pintle pivotally connecting such ear'portions at a point spaced rearwar'dlyfrom the rear wallsof the respective trays and substantially centered between them.

s. The device of claiin'fiin which e cn'tray a notch at its forward inner corner to facilitate removal of shufiled cards therefrom.

7. A device of the character described comprising right and lefthand trays each having a bottom and'one end and one side wall, the side wall'overhangin'g the bottom at 'anacute angle, and means pivotally connecting the trays for relative pivotal movement, the respective 'trays having their said side walls outermost andhaving open sides in proximit'yfto each'othe'r. f

PETER A. NAPIECINSKI.

Number V Great Britain Sept. 1', 1932 

